Connecticut, Michigan State Overcome Bumps in the Road

The season is long. The play is messy. The coaches make too much, and the players don't make enough. Most people can come up with so many reasons to ignore college basketball before March that it's almost remarkable the NCAA tournament is worth billions of dollars.

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Even if you can't stand to watch the sport's regular season, though, it's still safe to tune in Sunday and pretend like you know what's going on.

You didn't actually miss anything.

In the East region of the NCAA tournament, for example, No. 4 seed Michigan State and No. 7 seed Connecticut meet Sunday (2:20 p.m. ET, CBS) for a trip to the Final Four after both upset higher-seeded teams Friday night.

It's an Elite Eight matchup that wouldn't have made much sense a month ago. Michigan State alternated wins and losses from January through March, when the Spartans warded off so many injuries that coach Tom Izzo would've helped his team more as an urgent-care physician. Connecticut beat up bad competition but ended conference play on March 8 with a 33-point loss.

Yet now both teams are rolling, and one will advance to the national semifinals, revealing the hidden value of experience in the modern NCAA tournament. Michigan State and Connecticut are the latest proof that a veteran team can afford to underperform in the regular season—and it might not make a lick of difference come March Madness.

Michigan State's roster is talented and experienced, a rare combination in college basketball. Earlier this season, in a locker room in yet another professional-sports arena after beating Kentucky, Michigan State's 20-somethings were crowing that their advanced age helped them survive a top-five team, a similar scene to Friday's in Madison Square Garden after the Spartans knocked off Virginia.

College basketball's regular season offers a sample size of 31 games, but a ridiculous run of injuries made it largely meaningless for Michigan State. Four of its five starters Friday missed time this year, forcing Izzo to maintain the length and intensity of practices throughout the season, instead of easing up on his approach, a common practice among college coaches. There were doubts about Michigan State when the Spartans were healthy, too. On March 1, with the luxury of all its players, Michigan State failed to crack 50 points in a stunning home loss to Illinois that had Izzo questioning the team's potential.

But two weeks later, the Spartans rumbled through the Big Ten tournament, flashing signs of the team that had been ranked No. 1 in November. "I thought we found our identity again," Izzo said. This team of juniors and seniors was (and still is) a chic choice to win the national title. Three games were all this wily team needed to click. It was as if Michigan State's seesawing regular season had never happened.

Michigan State's players are pups compared to Connecticut's. Some of UConn's are so old that they remember all the way back to 2011, when they won the national championship, and when the most hyped players in college basketball this season were high-school sophomores watching on television.

Senior guard Shabazz Napier, the team's unquestionable star, came off the bench in that title game. Now, almost 100 games later, he has played in so many pressure settings that they no longer unnerve him. "I've been scared before in these situations," Napier said. "But I learned the various ways of handling that."

In fact, no team still in the NCAA tournament has more experience than Connecticut. "That's what should make it a great, great game," Izzo said.

"The coaches make too much, and the players don't make enough." Ben Cohen

A cost-free education is great compensation for playing a game that you love. Further, getting into any institution of higher learning without the usual prerequisite academic achievement is considerable compensation for those who receive it.

If anyone off the street could coach Division 1 men's basketball teams into the NCAA postseason on a recurring basis then coaches salaries would necessarily fall.

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